Nokia Is Coming Back In 2017- Here's What You Should Expect

As 2016 comes to an end and we look forward to 2017, one of the biggest and most anticipated events of next year will be the return of Nokia.

Nokia was arguably the most popular brand of phones in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa before the existence of the Android OS. Nokia fell out of users favor when they started producing Windows phones. In an attempt to keep up with the Android OS while releasing the Windows powered devices, Nokia launched the Nokia X and Nokia XL devices which i must say was a huge failure as it didn't get back the attention of it's users.

Nigeria still remains one of the largest smartphone markets in Africa and with brands like Samsung, Tecno , Infinix and Itel waxing strong in the West African Country can Nokia restore it's lost glory?.

I made some research and also made some contacts with HMD Global, the company that'll be taking over Nokia and from the looks of things, Nokia is planning a huge come back in 2017.

Around June , the Finnish mobile company signed an agreement with HMD Global, which will launch new smartphones – running Android – with the Nokia brand next year.

Here’s what you should definitely get to know about those plans.

P.S : SPOILER ALERT!!

HMD Global for the next 10 years have the right to release feature phones, smartphones and tablets with the Nokia branding. The first Nokia smartphones that'll use the Android operating system are to go on sale in the first half of 2017.

HMD is a startup that was formed in the last six months and its Headquarters is based in Finland, just like Nokia. It’s run by former Nokia executives led by CEO Arto Nummela and President Florian Seiche.

Nokia will not have any design input in the making of these new Android smartphones; all of that will be handled by HMD.

The phones will be made by FIH Mobile Limited, which is a subsidiary of Foxconn, one of the biggest assemblers of smartphones and the maker of the iPhone.

So expect to see some classic devices.

The company has hired Pekka Rantala as its chief marketing officer. He was the former senior vice-president of marketing at Nokia, he also served as the CEO of Rovio Entertainment, the developers of the popular Angry Birds mobile game . Rantala has quite a lot of experience in getting people interested in mobile brands and may just end up to be the perfect choice to help relaunch Nokia’s name in the mobile phone market.

HMD also chose Mother, one of the world’s biggest ad agencies to handle its global launch of Nokia smartphones. Mother’s clients include Target, Calvin Klein and many more major companies and brands. So we're looking at a very huge launch coming up. Nokia is looking to storm the market.

HMD just made statements about what their Nokia-branded smartphones will be like. They claim the phones will offer consumers

“innovation, quality and experience” and will combine that with Nokia’s previous reputation of offering iconic “design, robustness, and reliability”.

I've always trusted Nokia devices and I think they won't fall short of our expectations.

HMD also plans to spend about $500 million in marketing over the next three years to support the sale of the new Nokia phones. So we're looking at a Massive Ad Campaign.

Believe it or not, that’s all that Nokia and HMD have confirmed so far for their mobile phone return. But what about all the rumors about what those first Android smartphones might actually be like?

Rumored Smartphone Specifications

You can take these rumors with a pinch of salt as the source is not too legit.

According to NPU, the first Nokia branded phone will be called the D1c.

According to the site, there will be two variants of the first Nokia-branded phone from HMD. One will reportedly have a 5-inch display, 2 GB of RAM and a 13 MP rear camera, while the other will sport a 5.5-inch screen, 3 GB of RAM and a 16 MP rear camera. Both variants are supposed to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor inside running at 1.5 GHz, along with 16 GB of onboard storage, along with an 8 MP front-facing camera and Android Nougat tpre-installed. Pricing for the 2 GB version is supposed to be around $150 (N47,000)while the 3 GB version is rumored for about $200(N63,000)

These rumors are not yet confirmed, I just presented it here just to represent the latest rumors about the new Nokia smartphone.

Challenges

Nokia must try to offer innovative features for its phones that make them stand out from the crowd, yet also make them quite affordable to attract consumers. Finally, HMD needs a killer marketing campaign that will combine nostalgia for the Nokia brand with the new beginning for its smartphone products.

What do you want to see in HMD’s Nokia branded phones and do you think the name can come back to life in 2017? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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Nokia Is Coming Back In 2017- Here's What You Should Expect
Reviewed by Michael Ajah
on
Friday, December 16, 2016
Rating: 5